Paris, France - romantic, tough, particular, expensive, cultural
 

I worked in Paris so I found it quite difficult to make friends at first, as most of the people at the office were older than me. Housing was also a pretty tricky affair, as you practically need to present your bank statements to get anywhere! Having said that, Paris is full of life and cool places to go to, particularly the Marais which has so much charm. I really learnt a lot about food whilst I was out there, and once I got past the first few important milestones (getting a flat, settling in, making some French friends), I really enjoyed my time out there. Paris is a capital city and a pretty tough one at that, so make sure you say yes to everything and you don't take it too personally if people don't smile - it's part and parcel of being a true Parisien.

A few weeks ago, I was teaching a class about the delights (or lack of them) of English cuisine, this then led to a discussion on different types of gastronomy, Chinese, Italian, Thai. To finish the lesson I asked them, 'if I gave you a hundred euros and the choice to go to ANY restaurant in the whole of Paris, what type of cuisine would you choose?' To my surprise, 90% of them said French.